Dark Matter News Taking Back The Night!

BREAKING: TSUNAMI WATCH ISSUED FOR HAWAII POST 8.3 MAGNITUDE CHILEAN EARTHQUAKE (USGS) An 8.3 magnitude earthquake was just reported off the coast of Chile at 22:54:33 (UTC) prompting an immediate tsunami watch to be issued for the State of Hawaii. Officials from NOAA have issued this statement: THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OF THE INITIAL WAVE IS 0311 AM HST THU 17 SEP 2015 FURTHER MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT UNTIL THE THREAT TO HAWAII HAS PASSED. The first wave could arrive around 3:00 AM local time for Hawaii residents, though NOAA does not expect a major event...

Chilean Earthquake Footage As we stay up with you all though the morning providing updates on the current situation in the Pacific, we have compiled a list of footage from the 8.2 magnitude earthquake which rocked Chile Wednesday evening, setting a chain reaction of waves scheduled to reach landfall in California as early as 04:46 AM Pacific local time. So far five people have died, with multiple injured in the event. Over one million residents have been evacuated due to flooding, with 15 foot waves reported in Conquimbo. Watch: We will stay with our readers throughout the morning as updates roll...

Tsunami Watch – Latest Report A tsunami watch is still in effect for California. Local estimates still show that waves will arrive in California by about 4:46 a.m. in Newport Beach and arrive a minute later in the Port of Los Angeles. By 5:06 a.m., waves are estimated to arrive in Santa Barbara, and by 5:10 a.m., in Port San Luis. ***Update*** According to the latest NOAA reports, the tsunami still appears to be between 1-3 feet in height, with many reports listing it as less than one foot. California is still in a watch for this event which was set-off by an...

TSUNAMI ALERT UPDATE – GMT-6 02:41 AM (US Central Time) A tsunami watch is still in effect for California. Local estimates still show that waves will arrive in California by about 4:46 a.m. in Newport Beach and arrive a minute later in the Port of Los Angeles. By 5:06 a.m., waves are estimated to arrive in Santa Barbara, and by 5:10 a.m., in Port San Luis. ***Update*** New data sets added. Waves still variable in strength. Most recent data from markers closer to earthquake epicenter show smaller waves, as tsunami passes further away. Largest recorded waves just over 15 ft. in height. As...

Update: Tsunami Escalates as First Waves Measured in Galapagos A tsunami watch is still in effect for California. Local estimates still show that waves will arrive in California by about 4:46 a.m. in Newport Beach and arrive a minute later in the Port of Los Angeles. By 5:06 a.m., waves are estimated to arrive in Santa Barbara, and by 5:10 a.m., in Port San Luis. ***Update*** New data sets have been added from buoys around the Galapagos islands. So far, preliminary reports show waves escalating back up to over 2 ft above normal, though waves are still variable in strength. Largest recorded waves...

TSUNAMI ALERT UPDATE – GMT-6 01:41 AM (US Central Time) A tsunami watch is still in effect for California. Local estimates still show that waves will arrive in California by about 4:46 a.m. in Newport Beach and arrive a minute later in the Port of Los Angeles. By 5:06 a.m., waves are estimated to arrive in Santa Barbara, and by 5:10 a.m., in Port San Luis. Waves still currently appear to be variable in strength. Dark Matter News will try to provide hourly updates through the morning as new USGS and NOAA information is made available. UPDATES ——- * UPDATED OBSERVATIONS SEE NTWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV FOR...

Floods Ravage Utah And Southwest A devastating storm ripped through the southwest causing flash floods from Los Angeles to Utah. Particularly hard hit was the Utah-Arizona border town of Hildale, the home base of Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS. Reports confirm that 13 were killed in the flash flooding that, according to eye witness Chris Wyler, only seemed to last, “like a half hour, [or] 45 minutes.” According to Utah officials in the city of Hildale and the Washington County Emergency Services, among the dead are at least 3 women and 6 children, ranging in...

NASA: Ocean Possibly Discovered Inside Saturn Moon Enceladus In a press release this Tuesday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory discusses the high likelihood that there might be an ancient ocean lurking inside of Saturn’s Moon Enceladus. The finding, they said, “implies the fine spray of water vapor, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon’s south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir.” What tipped off researchers to this notion was the observation that Enceladus has a very slight wobble. By their estimates, this would not be the kind of behavior observed...

Man Eaters of the Himalayas Would you expect a fuzzy kitty to have a body count greater than the likes of Freddy, Jason and Leatherface combined? The infamous “Panar Leopard” is one of several big cats throughout history who made bloody names for themselves by picking off Hindu pilgrims traveling the winding, isolated roads of the Himalayas. During attacks, the leopards lunge for the throat or nape of the neck, aiming to sever as many veins as possible. Hominid skeletons found in Africa and dating back to millions of years ago are said to show puncture marks from leopard teeth....

Living Life the Victorian Way Is history a lot like the game of telephone in which stories are repeated over and over again until the final retelling bears little resemblance to the truth? This is what Sarah A. Chrisman and her husband Gabriel believe. In 2010, they made a life-changing decision. Frustrated with the complexities of daily life and fascinated by the secrets of the past, the Chrismans, both of whom are history buffs, chose to time travel in a way, transporting their lifestyle back to the late Victorian era of the 1880s and 1890s. Nothing But Primary Source Materials...

Wildfire In California Caught On Tape Like a scene out of an end-of-the-world disaster movie, the town of Anderson Springs, CA goes up in flames while being filmed by a fleeing YouTuber. The video, nearly 2 minutes in length, shows the utter devastation caused by the so-called Valley Fire, located in Lake County roughly 100 miles north of San Francisco, that has ravaged about 61,000 acres, destroyed at least 400 structures, and is currently only 5-percent contained. There has also been 1 reported death due to the fire as of late. “It looked like hell everywhere,” said Maddie Ross, a 25 year old...

A New Take On Colonizing Mars And Other Planets A new NASA-sponsored competition hopes to unlock the secrets of space colonization through user-submitted design proposals. Called the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, NASA hopes that the competition will help to, “develop the fundamental technologies necessary to manufacture an off-world habitat using mission recycled materials and/or local indigenous materials.” NASA continues, “The vision is that autonomous habitat manufacturing machines will someday be deployed to the Moon or Mars to construct shelters for human habitation;” a lot of fancy speech for a simple idea: using 3D-Printers to build structures using materials which already exist on the...

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, it’s imperative that you have a plan. If you’re influenced by the movies, then you might be inclined to take your chances and head for the nearest pub or shopping mall in order to outwit a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies. Your average shopping mall is equipped with all […]

Nobody has ever put a lander on the far side of the Moon before, but China is well on its way to being the first. Over the weekend, the country launched a craft called Queqiao – a satellite that will orbit the Moon to relay messages from the yet-to-be-launched lander, Chang’e-4. The Moon is tidally […]

It only lasted for a savage, fleeting instant, but for 8 intense seconds last week an eagle, a fox, and a rabbit flew across the sky as one. In an incredibly rare scene, photographers have captured the moment a bald eagle swooped down upon a young red fox clutching a rabbit, and in its whirlwind […]

There is something special and awe-inspiring about watching new land form. This is what is now happening in Hawai’i as its Kīlauea volcano erupts. Lava is reaching the ocean and building land while producing spectacular plumes of steam. These eruptions are hugely important for the creation of new land. But they are also dangerous. Where […]

Calling all citizen scientists! A project looking for those dying, exploding stars called supernovae out in deep space is also searching for volunteers to help in the work, and you can get real science credit for it along the way – even if you’ve never done a second of star-gazing before. Astronomers from the Australian National […]

When Jean-Lou Justine received the first photograph of a giant worm with a head like a shovel, the biologist was astounded. Hammerhead flatworms, which grow to a foot or more in length, do not belong in European vegetable gardens. “We do not have that in France,” said Justine, a professor at the National Museum of […]

Astronauts go through many physiological changes during their time in spaceflight, including lower muscle mass and slower muscle development. Similar symptoms can occur in the muscles of people on Earth’s surface, too. In fact, it could affect everyone to some extent later in life. “Age-related skeletal muscle disorders, such as sarcopenia, are becoming a greater […]

Exposure to early life trauma can lead to poor physical and mental health in some individuals, which can be passed on to their children. Studies in mice show that at least some of the effects of stress can be transmitted to offspring via environmentally-induced changes in sperm miRNA levels. A new epigenetics study raises the […]

Most renderings and reconstructions of pterodactyls and other extinct flying reptiles show a flight pose much like that of bats, which fly with their hind limbs splayed wide apart. But a new method for inferring how ancient animals might have moved their joints suggests that pterosaurs probably couldn’t strike that pose. “Most of the work […]

Corals growing in high-latitude reefs in Western Australia can regulate their internal chemistry to promote growth under cooler temperatures, according to new research at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at The University of Western Australia. The study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that ocean warming may […]